Auld lang syne around the world
The lyrics were written in Scots dialect by the poet Robert Burns in 1788. That’s a lot of auld lang syne ago.
But the song—set to a traditional folk tune—has endured, particularly at New Year’s to be sung right after midnight. Nostalgia is a common theme at the turn of the year.
What I hadn’t known till I read that Wiki entry is that the song has spread all over the world, either in translation or just the tune:
“Auld Lang Syne” has been translated into many languages, and the song is widely sung all over the world. The song’s pentatonic scale matches scales used in Korea, Japan, India, China and other East Asian countries, which has facilitated its “nationalisation” in the East…
—In West Bengal and Bangladesh, the melody was the direct inspiration for the popular Bengali folk song[23][24] “Purano shei diner kotha” (“Memories of the Good Old Days”), composed by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and forms one of the more recognisable tunes in Rabindra Sangeet (“Rabindra’s Songs”), a body of work of 2,230 songs and lyrical poems that form the backbone of Bengali music.
—In Denmark, the song was translated in 1927 by the famous Danish poet Jeppe Aakjær. Much like Robert Burns’ use of dialect, Aakjær translated the song into Sallingbomål, a form of the Jutlandic dialect often hard for other Danes to understand…
—In Thailand, the song “Samakkhi Chumnum” (“Together in Unity”), which is set to the familiar melody, is sung after sporting fixtures, and at the end of Boy Scout jamborees, as well as for the New Year. The Thai lyrics are about the King and national unity, and many Thais are not aware of the song’s “Western” origin…
Auld Lang Syne has been used in other works such as movies and poems. My favorite reference is in a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, one you may have encountered in poetry anthologies, “Mr. Flood’s Party.” It’s a poem about time and age and isolation. Old Eben Flood climbs a hill and drinks from a jug, talking to himself—that’s the gist of the poem. But of course it’s much more than that.
Here’s the reference (the last 3 stanzas of the poem). It begins with Flood talking to himself as though conversing with an old friend:
…“Well, Mr. Flood, we have not met like this
In a long time; and many a change has come
To both of us, I fear, since last it was
We had a drop together. Welcome home!”
Convivially returning with himself,
Again he raised the jug up to the light;
And with an acquiescent quaver said:
“Well, Mr. Flood, if you insist, I might.“Only a very little, Mr. Flood—
For auld lang syne. No more, sir; that will do.”
So, for the time, apparently it did,
And Eben evidently thought so too;
For soon amid the silver loneliness
Of night he lifted up his voice and sang,
Secure, with only two moons listening,
Until the whole harmonious landscape rang—“For auld lang syne.” The weary throat gave out,
The last word wavered; and the song being done,
He raised again the jug regretfully
And shook his head, and was again alone.
There was not much that was ahead of him,
And there was nothing in the town below—
Where strangers would have shut the many doors
That many friends had opened long ago.
When I was in college, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a local radio program called “Lucky Lager Dance Time” that we would listen to on a date since, just before 12, they would play Auld Lang Syne. That meant we had to hurry to get the girls back to the dorm by 12.
Lucky Lager was a Los Angeles beer brand.
Love you, Neo, but I’m feeling quite trepidatious and depressed about 2019 as it is lol
RigelDog:
I’ve always found this time of year hard. I think a lot of people do.
And 2019 isn’t looking too happy politically, but we really cannot predict what will actually occur. Events always surprise us in unexpected ways. Sometimes good ways.
I appreciate the positive observations, Neo. We here in RigelLand are blessed and doing well, albeit without January paychecks unless the government freeze ends. Politically stormy times ahead, for sure, but one never knows how it will all turn out, do one?
There was this fabulous version of Auld Lang Syne done partly in a Scottish dialect that I had heard a couple times as part of some TV show. I took me a while to find it. I think this is it, by Mairi Campbell on YouTube. It’s worth taking a moment to put on some earbuds or headphones.
RigelDog – “albeit without January paychecks unless the government freeze ends” — I fear you are among the Eggs broken when the Politicians make omelettes.
“many Thais are not aware of the song’s “Western” origin…”
I have noticed that many people are unaware of the “foreign” origins of their “native” music, and have made a hobby of tracing the European (or other) roots of familiar American folksongs. And sometimes it goes the other direction.
We belong to a Welsh Heritage Society, for the sociability and history, and often sing hymns out of the old hymnbooks as an aid to learning the language, and because they are fine examples of four-part hymnody.
(Sometimes the predominantly 19th-century lyrics confound our Welsh choir director, as, so he said, they do not use those texts these days.)
Our delight is belting out the “original” Welsh words to our common “English” hymns (“Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah” being the best known text to the Welsh tune “Cwm Rhondda”), but I was amused to discover that the Welsh hymnists had also adopted tunes written by Americans and given them either Welsh translations or entirely new texts.
Let’s have a cheer for Cultural Appropriation!
(A Welsh language “Cwm Rhondda” with a text by Ann Griffiths; the choir is singing slightly different words from the visual text in a few spots.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIF9pb_Er_Y
Edwin Arlington Robinson.
Tony:
Thanks! Careless typo on my part. Will fix.
Auld Lang Syne has been incorporated into cultures all over the world.Sounds as if there was an awful lot of cultural appropriation of Auld Lang Syne. Which will be forgiven- or swept into the dustbin of history. We cannot call Thais and Bengalis guilty of cultural appropriation, as that is a sin that only Westerners commit. 🙂
However , we can call Auld Lang Syne’s incorporation into cultures all over the world an example of cultural imperialism, which all will righteously condemn. 🙂
Does that mean that Westerners doing yoga is an example of Hindu cultural imperialism? 🙂